I will be the first to
admit that Delmark's new release, Junior Wells &
The Aces "Live In Boston 1966" was kind of hard to get
through, in a good way, I mean. You see some of the Tracks were so good when
listening to them for the first time that I had to back track a few
of them just so I could quickly give them another listen, before continuing on. My first
detour came at Track 4, "Worried Life Blues", "one of the most
covered of all blues songs" which was written by Major "Big Maceo" Merriweather
in 1941. Another detour was hit at "That's All Right", a Jimmy
Rogers classic. I really have not repeated songs before on previous reviewed Albums
before listening to the whole Album, but Junior Wells & The Aces
"Live In Boston 1966" was just that
kind
of exceptional
one.

Junior Wells was born Amos Blackmore on December 9th,
1934 in Memphis, Tennessee and was learning his first Harp licks at
the age of 12 from another future legend, Little Junior Parker. In the
early 1950's when Fred Below came on board as a drummer for
the then Deuces, The Aces were born. When Little Walter left the Muddy Waters
Band, it was Junior Wells whom jumped in to take his place
and not to be out done, The
Aces
joined Little
Walter.

Junior Wells & The Aces "Live In Boston 1966" marks a
reuniting between Junior Wells and The Aces. By the time of this
recording, which some believe may have originally been a bootleg or radio broadcast,
Junior Wells was in the midst of redefining himself and had started
leaning a bit more towards, R&B, Soul,
and
Rock N
Roll.

Junior Wells & The Aces "Live In Boston 1966" is a wonderful look into the music
of a important blues Legend and shows us just how versatile, unique,
and creative of a showman Junior Wells was. This is highlighted by the
banter of Wells' in between each song, so much so, that the
banter is listed as their own tracks and go on upward of over
3 minutes on Track 15. This banter with the audience and the
resulting feedback really gives this Album a
special
meaning and
atmosphere.

Junior Wells & The Aces "Live In Boston
1966" consists of 11 musical tracks, all magnificent covers such as, "Worried Man
Blues" (Major "Big Maceo" Merriweather), "That's All Right" (Jimmy Rogers), "Messin' With
The Kid" (Mel London), and "Got My Mojo Workin'" (Preston Foster) to name
a few. My favorite was "Worried Man Blues" and as mentioned earlier,
the first of 2 Tracks I had
to repeat
before continuing
on.

The one thing I truly like about Live Albums is that they
have a good degree of spontaneity and improvisation sprinkled throughout
them, and Junior Wells & The Aces "Live In Boston 1966" is no
exception. A fine example of that can be found on the Track, "Junior's
Whoop," where Junior goes off into his own world as his blows the hell out
of his harp.

Junior Wells & The Aces "Live In Boston 1966" was
released by Delmark Records, a label which has built up a huge reputation
over the last 55+ Years in bringing the world the opportunity to continue
listening to the best Jazz and Blues that their ever was, and this fine
Album, is absolutely no exception.

I highly Recommend Junior Wells & The Aces "Live In
Boston 1966", not only for it's historical significance, but also because
it is one heck of a good Album.

Harmonica ace and singer Junior Wells
had recently recorded his classic blues LP Hoodoo Man Blues when this live
set was recorded (possibly originally a bootleg or radio broadcast)
featuring him with the crack band known as The Aces: Louis Myers on
guitar, Dave Myers bass, and Fred Below on drums. These musicians were
very familiar with each other and it shows throughout the performance, as
they are tight as can be. Highlights of the album include “Man Downstairs"
where they mash-up blues classics “One Way Out" and “Big Boss Man" to
excellent effect. “Junior's Whoop" showcases Wells' excellent harmonica
playing swooping and swaying along the beat and playing with the timing of
a saxophonist. Blues chestnuts “That's Alright Mama" and “Look On Yonder's
Wall" are potent performances, leading up to Wells' signature piece
“Messin' With the Kid" which is taken with enough swagger and verve to
rival Muddy Waters. Speaking of Waters, the group covers “Hoochie Coochie
Man" with the group setting the flavor while Junior lays back and then
sidles up for a powerful performance. The full band gets a chance to blow
on Freddie King's “Hideaway" featuring excellent guitar playing and a rock
solid pocket of bass and drums. This is a nice snapshot of Junior Wells at
what was arguably his peak, and with the inclusion of his between song
banter, it has the feel of the nightclub atmosphere. The recording quality
is a little rough, but still very listenable, and fans of the Chicago
style of electric blues will
surely
enjoy this
album.

*The review by Tim Niland actually has a
few errors. “That's Alright Mama" is not on this Album and neither is
“Hoochie Coochie Man". "Thats All Right", a Jimmy Rogers song is on this
Album.

I was ecstatic to learn that Junior Wells had a new live
album coming out. In fact, I emailed Delmark Records to rush me a copy.
Why? It's JUNIOR WELLS. Then, when I heard it had the Aces backing him,
well, let's just say, I had to walk around in Depends for about a day.
Junior was one of those all-time Chicago blues giants that just has never
and will never be replaced.

Recorded in 1966, shortly after the immense success of
Hoodoo Man Blues (also available on Delmark and featuring one of the first
of many excursions with Buddy Guy), Wells is caught between the old school
ensemble sound of early postwar Chicago and the funk-laden R&B grooves
of both the West Side and the new, hipper blues scene of the late 60s. As
Scott Dirks so eloquently documents in his liner notes, this is a reach
back with sprinkles of the contemporary on this intimate club setting
record. The in-between song banter is left intact here for the listener to
get a complete feel for the energy, persona, and charisma that was Junior
Wells. The rock-solid work of the Myers Brothers and Fred Below is
impeccable, so why should I waste time and space here to tell you?

Despite some of the lo-fi sound quality that may drag on
some of the contemporary blues fans' ears, this album is an essential for
anyone in capturing the history of Chicago blues. This album was right on
the threshold of the door between early postwar and the electric blues of
the 60s and is essential based on that historical merit alone. The music
has both a lazy, fall-apart-at-any-moment feel and a stinging precision
that completely encompasses the contradiction and nuance that is Junior
Wells the man, the musician, and the blues legend.

By 1966, Chicago blues legend and harmonica wizard Junior
Wells was in the midst of re-inventing himself for a new audience that
preferred R&B, soul, and rock 'n' roll over the raw blues that he'd
created in the 1950s. The release, a year earlier, of Hoodoo Man Blues,
showed that Wells was re-energized by his appeal to a white audience, many
of whom had been introduced to the blues by outfits like the Paul
Butterfield Blues Band before seeking out the source of Butterfield and
crew's mojo.

Live In Boston 1966 captures a previously-unreleased
performance recorded just a few months after the release of Hoodoo Man
Blues. Wells is reunited with the Aces – guitarist Louis Myers, bassist
Dave Myers, and drummer Fred Below – the band with which he originally
made a name for himself with a series of red-hot recordings during the
early 1950s. The album includes eleven livewire performances that crackle
with electricity, accompanied by Wells' joking, entertaining between-song
patter.

Junior Wells' Live In Boston 1966

With a brief intro, Wells rolls into "Feelin' Good," a
driving blues tune with a shuffling locomotive rhythm and well-timed
guitar licks. While Wells' vocals are somewhat slurred during the actual
singing part, they're clear enough that you can make out the story that he
expertly weaves throughout the song. Wells takes the lonesome country
blues of Sleepy John Estes' "Worried Life Blues" into an entirely
different universe, injecting a mournful energy into the song with his
weeping vocals and a measured blast of harp, guitarist Louis Myers adding
an elegantly-toned backing soundtrack above the nuanced rhythms.

One of the great things about Live In Boston 1966 is the
opportunity to experience Wells' underrated improvisational skills, the
artist able to take flight on a whim, as with his cover of Amos
Blakemore's "Junior's Whoop," a lively showcase for Wells' harp playing
acumen and Myers' six-string skills. While Wells plays it straight to
begin with, he takes off on a tangent with a manic harp run, the band
shuffling along energetically behind, Louis Myers taking his own side trip
with some inspired fretwork that displays both the man's great tone, but
his fluid blues/jazz playing style.

Messin' With The Kid

Wells takes Jimmy Roger's classic "That's All Right," slows
it down to a smoldering blues bonfire, and then blows it up with a soulful
vocal drawl, Myers' gorgeous guitarwork, and a slow, swaggering rhythm
courtesy bassist Dave Myers and drummer Below. Myers' mid-song guitar solo
simply kills with its emotional vibrancy, Wells yielding the spotlight for
a moment to the talented guitarist. Wells' signature tune "Messin' With
The Kid" is delivered with its typical aplomb, the band juking loudly
behind Myers' roundabout guitar riff, Wells tearing off an electric vocal
performance.

The band does an 'ace' job (sorry) on Freddie King's
trademark instrumental "Hideaway," starting the song off as a Chicago
blues shuffle before strutting into King's familiar marching guitar line,
filling in the spaces with rambunctious drumbeats, a fine walking bass
line, and wild guitar licks. Wells throws in a few squalls of harp near
the end as the song devolves into a funky jam session. "Got My Mojo
Working," a song Wells learned as a young man tutored by the great Muddy
Waters, is provided the most upbeat and rollicking performance of these
tracks, the band kicking into overdrive with an extended jam, as Wells
lays down a dynamic vocal take and blasts of manic harp. The result is a
loose-limbed and anarchic performance that sounds great!

The Reverend's Bottom Line

An unreleased gem of a live performance, Live In Boston 1966
provides the blues fan with a vintage recording of the legendary Junior
Wells backed by a top-notch R&B outfit in the Aces, both the artist
and the band kicking out the jams with vitality and energy. Wells'
between-song conversations with the audience provide a welcome intimacy,
and display the harpslinger's charismatic personality. While the sound
here is somewhat dodgy, given its age, it also helps recreate the blues
club ambiance...it really sounds like you're sitting in the audience.

This is as good as blues music gets, and if you're not down
with it, I can only assume that you've achieved room temperature. For
those of us still bubbling under the 98.6 degree mark, Live In Boston 1966
is guaranteed to get your blood boiling and your feet tapping
uncontrollably.

He was one bad dude, strutting across
the stage like a harp-toting gangster, mesmerizing the crowd with his
tough-guy antics and rib-sticking Chicago blues attack. Amazingly, Junior
Wells kept at precisely this sort of thing for over 40 years -- he was an
active performer from the dawn of the 1950s to his death in the late '90s.

Born in Memphis, Wells learned his
earliest harp licks from another future legend, Little Junior Parker,
before he came to Chicago at age 12. In 1950, the teenager passed an
impromptu audition for guitarists Louis and David Myers at a house party
on the South side, and the Deuces were born. When drummer Fred Below came
aboard, they changed their name to the Aces.

Little Walter left Muddy Waters in 1952
(in the wake of his hit instrumental, "Juke"), and Wells jumped ship to
take his place with Waters. That didn't stop the Aces (who joined forces
with Little Walter) from backing Wells on his initial sessions for States
Records, though -- his debut date produced some seminal Chicago blues
efforts, including his first reading of "Hoodoo Man," a rollicking "Cut
That Out," and the blazing instrumentals "Eagle Rock" and "Junior's Wail."

More fireworks ensued the next year when
he encored for States with a mournful "So All Alone" and the jumping
"Lawdy! Lawdy!" (Muddy Waters moonlighted on guitar for the session).
Already Wells was exhibiting his tempestuous side -- he was allegedly AWOL
from the Army at the time.

In 1957, Wells hooked up with producer
Mel London, who owned the Chief and Profile logos. The association
resulted in many of Wells's most enduring sides, including "I Could Cry"
and the rock & rolling "Lovey Dovey Lovely One" in 1957; the grinding
national R&B hit "Little by Little" (with Willie Dixon providing vocal
harmony) in 1959, and the R&B-laced classic "Messin' with the Kid" in
1960 (sporting Earl Hooker's immaculate guitar work). Wells's harp was
de-emphasized during this period on record in favor of his animated
vocals.

With Bob Koester producing, the harpist
cut an all-time classic LP for Delmark in 1965. Hoodoo Man Blues vividly
captured the feel of a typical Wells set at Theresa's Lounge, even though
it was cut in a studio. With Buddy Guy (initially billed as "Friendly
Chap" due to his contract with Chess) providing concise lead guitar, Wells
laid down definitive versions of "Snatch It Back and Hold It," "You Don't
Love Me," and "Chittlin' Con Carne."

The harpist made his second appearance
on the national R&B lists in 1968 with a funky James Brown-tinged
piece, "You're Tuff Enough," for Mercury's feisty Blue Rock logo. Wells
had been working in this bag for some time, alarming the purists but
delighting R&B fans; his brass-powered 1966 single for Bright Star,
"Up in Heah," had previously made a lot of local noise.

After a fine mid-'70s set for Delmark
(On Tap), little was heard from Wells on vinyl for an extended spell,
though he continued to enjoy massive appeal at home (Theresa's was his
principal haunt for many a moon) and abroad (whether on his own or in
partnership with Guy; they opened for the Rolling Stones on one memorable
tour and cut an inconsistent but interesting album for Atco in the early
'70s).

Toward the end of his career, Wells just
didn't seem to be into recording anymore; a pair of sets for Telarc in the
early '90s were major disappointments, but his last studio session, 1997's
Come on in This House, found him on the rebound and the critics noticed --
the album won the W.C. Handy Blues Award for Traditional Blues Album in
1997. Even when he came up short in the studio, Wells remained a potent
live attraction, cutting a familiar swaggering figure, commanding the
attention of everyone in the room with one menacing yelp or a punctuating
blast from his amplified harmonica. He continued performing until he was
diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in the summer of 1997. That fall, he
suffered a heart attack while undergoing treatment, sending him into a
coma. Wells stayed in the coma until he passed away on January 15, 1998. A
handful of compilations were released shortly after his death, as was the
film Blues Brothers 2000, which featured a cameo by Wells. ~ Bio Courtesy
Of Bill Dahl... http://www.bluesharp.ca/legends/jwells.html